The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company

Answers to be submitted in Hard Copy to Prof. Jyoti Kulkarni in the Session of Services Marketing & management only:-

1. "Service" Can be an elusive concept. What is the essence of The Ritz Carlton experience? What is the Ritz Carlton Selling?

Ans: The Ritz Carlton hotel company focuses on training employees in order to provide the most distinctive luxurious service the gust can get. After the long experience in hotel business the management has set the golden standards which encompass the values and philosophy by which the Ritz Carlton operates and include:

The Credo

The Motto

The Three Steps of Service

Service Values

The 6th Diamond

The Employee Promise

So when you think of luxury hotels, a few brands come to mind. Among them is the Ritz-Carlton. The hotel has established a worldwide reputation for treating guests like royalty. Walk into any Ritz-Carlton hotel in the world and you will be greeted by a staff that works at making customer service an art. Every employee, from the valet to the front desk attendant to the waiter to the housekeeper, is warm, friendly, gracious, courteous, and genuinely seems eager to make sure your stay is a memorable one.

2. How does the Ritz Carlton create "Ladies & gentlemen" in only 7days?

Ans: The seven day count down was a result of the evolution and the refinement of the hotel opening process which became more solidified in the late 1980s to the early 1990s when the hotel chine was opening many new properties. Standardization brought greater efficiency and relived some of the burden placed on new managers and leaders responsible for ultimately running the hotel.

Hallmarks of the program include participatory executive leadership, thorough information gathering, coordinated planning and execution, and a trained workforce that is empowered "to move heaven and earth" to satisfy customers. These committed employees rank as the most essential element. All are schooled in the company's "Gold Standards," which set out Ritz-Carlton's service credo and basics of premium service.

The corporate motto is "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." To provide superior service, Ritz-Carlton trains employees with a thorough orientation, followed by on-the-job training, then job certification. Ritz-Carlton values are reinforced continuously by daily "line ups," frequent recognition for extraordinary achievement, and a performance appraisal based on expectations explained during the orientation, training, and certification process.

After opening and managing more than 25 luxury hotel and resort a great experience has accumulated for the Ritz Carlton hotel company. Depending on this experience the management has made the "Ladies and Gentlemen Seven Day Countdown". These seven days where divide in a very professional way so they could meet the demands of opening the new hotel and provide the same excellent quality of service as the other Ritz Carlton hotel does.

The benefits of detailed planning and the hands-on involvement of executives are evident during the seven days leading up to the opening of a new hotel. Rather than opening a hotel in phases, as is the practice in the industry. Ritz-Carlton aims to have everything right when the door opens to the first customer. A "seven-day-countdown control plan" synchronizes all steps leading to the opening. The company president and other senior leaders personally instruct new employees on the gold standards and quality management during a two-day orientation, and a specially selected start-up team composed of staff from the company's other hotels ensures that all work areas, processes, and equipment are ready.

The emphasis in the first day will be on the staff orientation, Schulz and others describe the hotel company's history, philosophy, values, and the gold standards. In the second day of the count down, employees in each functional area meet for an introduction to their new departments. Group exercise were used to help employees learn more about each other , their likes and dislikes and how they could function together as an effective unite. Schulz, the COO, kicked off the vision sessions for each department by asking the groups what they want to be in a year. The answer was "the best" and Schulz started the process of specifying what being the best mean for each area.

For the next five days the hotels leadership team, trainers, and managers met each morning to review the day's training and to resolve difficulties that had arisen. During the first tow of the remaining five days, uniform fittings were scheduled, personal grooming sessions were conducted, and employees were introduced to the daily line up procedure. All the employees attend a session on the anticipation and handling of guest request, while each department continued to formulate and refine its own philosophy and statement of goals over views within functional areas oriented the new staff to the big picture within their division.

Depending on the information mentioned above the managers at Ritz Carlton used two strategies: intensive training and focusing on quality standards in order to accomplish the Ladies and gentlemen seven days count down successfully. The decisions that management took while creating the Ladies and Gentlemen in only seven days were both mission and profession decisions. The first tow days were for employee orientation and departmental vision sessions where they have been informed about the gold standards and the high service quality the Ritz Carlton hotel provide for its customers .the next five days were for skill training in deferent department in order to ensure that all employees will completely ready when the doors are opened .

3. Should James McBride lengthen the 7 day countdown?

Ans: The Ritz Carlton hotel company operates a chain of more than 52 luxury hotel and resort around the world, what differentiate the Ritz Carlton from other companies is the company's business plan that concentrates on setting goals for quality products and services. Quality goals draw heavily on consumer requirements derived from extensive research by the travel industry and the company's customer reaction data, focus groups, and surveys. The plan relies upon a management system designed to avoid the variability of service delivery traditionally associated with hotels. Uniform processes are well defined and documented at all levels